Our Heritage
by jormarrot
Summary: Alphonse and Edward reach a startling conflict in their bloodline; just who is and who was their father?


The sky was vast above the two brothers camping in an open field. Alphonse, propped against a log, was reading a philosophical book by firelight. Edward, lying on his back, gazed at the starts above wondering if the trap he laid earlier caught a rabbit yet. Picking at the grass became more boring by the second, and when Ed's hand brushed over a small stone, he got a devious notion to hurl it at his brother. However, remembering Al's labors of polishing his armor just hours earlier, he decided to finger the rough edges instead. Ed almost missed Al's quiet call.

"Ed?"

Flipping over onto his belly, Edward replied, "Yeah Al?"

Though the armors face portrayed no emotions, Al's posture and figiting gave away his conflicting thoughts.

"Umm… never mind. There are more important things to think about."

This caught the older brother's attention, and Ed decided that now was a very good time to throw the stone at Al. The stone gave a small '_tok_' when it hit Al's breastplate.

"Hey!"

"What do you mean, 'There are more important things to worry about?' If something's eating at you, just say it. Is it about that bird's nest on the ground I accidently stepped on this morning? I swear I didn't see it! It's not my fault it was hidden under the grass!"

Al shook his head.

"No… I was thinking about our family, then I thought about mom and dad and how happy they must have been. Then I started thinking about dad's predicament…"

Oh. Ed stayed silent remembering the heavy cologne Hoenheim wore, masking the putrid flesh beneath his clothes. He wrinkled his nose at the memory.

"… Don't think about it too much, Al. It's his fault for using the stone so much and decaying his soul. Besides, the guy left and did nothing as a father except help conceive us. That fact alone is depressing."

"Well, if he hadn't met mom, then we'd not even be here. But that's not what I'm getting at."

Alphonse fidgeted again, suddenly very uncomfortable. He cast his gaze to the log where a beetle crawled along the bark. Watching the beetle's process, Al gave a sigh.

"Ed, who are we exactly?"

Ed blinked.

"…What?"

"I mean –"

Alphonse set his book down and took a deep, nonexistent breath.

"So, mom is mom, right? She's Trisha Elric. We can trace her side of the family back to the foundation of Resinbull. But father… well, who is he?"

Now sitting up, Ed contemplated his younger brother's question. Who is Hoenheim?

"… He's a God-damned, vagabond bastard."

"Ed! Seriously! If you think about it, dad essentially jumped body to body for the past four hundred years. I don't know if he had any children when he was in his original body, but given to his perseverance in completing a Philosopher's Stone, he didn't exactly settle down and started a family all those years ago. I can assume that he has direct lineage in this present day."

"But we're here, Al."

"No, no, that's not what I'm saying!"

Al now stared at Ed, his back straight and rigid while his hands wildly gesticulated.

"Ed, the person who we call our father – don't you 'humph' at me – our father, Van Hoenheim, no longer has his own body. He's manifested his soul into other people by switching his soul with theirs. And so father, when he first met mom, was in another person's body. For how long, I don't know, but long enough for them to become very familiar with themselves. I suppose what I'm getting at is… who was the person who came originally from the body that Hoenheim's soul now currently resides in?"

Edward stopped breathing. Now he understood what Al was getting at.

Who were they? Edward assumed that they were simply Trisha and Hoenheim's children, but with Al's new query, a whole new horizon of questions expanded before Ed's mind. Who was the guy that Hoenheim switched bodies with; the tall, blond man with a large build that caught their mother's eye? Was he a poor, simple farmer? A rich gentleman from noble birth? A colleague from a previous job? Some generous guy who was unfortunate enough to offered Hoenheim shelter from a torrential down-pour? Also, does Hoenheim have the right to call them their father? His soul was in a body, but it wasn't his to begin with!

Edward hunched over, sat cross legged, and propped his chin on his left hand. Taking slow breaths, he tried to clear his conscious; but no matter how much he tried to quiet his buzzing mind, the questions kept coming.

Sure, Ed's physical attributes came from the body Hoenheim has, but Ed's knowledge and passion for alchemy comes from Hoenheim himself. Hoenheim also said that Ed's behavior was just like his when he was an adolescent! Does that conclude that Ed and Al were a mixture from a stranger's body and Hoenheim's soul? But what about the mind? A body is connected to the soul by the mind, so wouldn't that make the correlation between Hoenheim's soul and the stranger's body incompetent?

"Dammit Al, why would you think of such a concept? Hell!"

Edward huffed, stood upright, and stomped away. He needed some time to think and a boulder to kick. Alphonse stayed where he sat, and look above at the starry night. A while later, Ed returned to their camp and sat his not-too-happy rump down on the log besides Al. He gave his younger brother a nudge.

"Al, we're Trisha Elric's children. We inherited her last name. 'Elric' is what's written on our birth certificates, or at least the copy that Granny Pinako has." Ed rubbed his hands over his face and let out a long exhale. "Please, we don't need to burden ourselves with these thoughts. Sure, it is troublesome, but for now, let's just focus on finding a way to make a Stone without using people's souls. Hoenheim is too much of a distraction."

Ed gave a pat on Al's shoulder before walking over to his side of the campfire.

"Wake me up in a few hours. Maybe by that time a hare would be caught in my trap and I can eat some meat. And also, stick to those washy dime store novels. They don't make you think so hard. I have that random detective story Falman gave me; read that instead."

With that, Ed lay on his side and faced away from the fire. Whether or not he fell asleep, Al didn't know, but most likely he lay awake still wrapping his mind around what Al was pondering about just hours previously.

"…Okay then. Sleep well, Ed."

* * *

So I actually started thinking about this when the first anime just completed on Adult Swim. I'll be honest, I contemplated this idea for days, but finally I manifested it into digital print. Thankfully, I know who both my parents are, but for Ed and Al… how horrible it must be to even start considering the aspect of what their true identity is. They could be related to kings!


End file.
